R & Sie

R & Sie(n) is a small architectural fi rm in Paris. Its principal members are Francois Roche, Ste-fanie Lavaux and Jean Navarro.

R & Sie is not your typical architecture fi rm.

Katherine Treppendahl & Sarah Cancienne

Mallarme: To name (or identify) an object is to suppress three-quarters of the enjoyment . . . which derives from the pleasure of step-by-step discovery; to suggest, that is the dream. . . . There must always be an enigma . . . the goal – there is no other – is to evoke objects (without naming them). -a quote that Francois Roche has used several times in his essays

We’d like to try and tell you a little bit about this fi rm. The problem is that, in every way, this fi rm defi es explication:

For example:

Finding a picture of Francois Roche is near to impossible. The only picture that one can fi nd is this one which is a combination of his face with Stephanie Lavaux’s.

The name of the fi rm has changed multiple times. Each name is a refl ection of the part-ners in the fi rm (R & Sie is derived from Fran-cois Roche and Stephanie Lavaux. Also, when pronounced in French, it sounds like heresy)

R&Sie’s descriptions of their projects are often written in fragments and are riddled with allu-sions.

The titles of the projects often allude to confusion(I’ve heard about, I’mlostinparis, terra incognita).

From 1989-2005: BoyeRoche 89 / Roche* 90 / Roche&François 91 / Roche, François, Lewis, Huber, Roubaud, Per-rin 92 / Roche, DSV & Sie 93-97 / R, DSV & Sie .P 98 / R&Sie.D/B:L 99 -2001 / R&Sie... 2001-2004 / R&Sie(n)...2004-08....

Hermaphroditic polar bears

Edgar Allan Poe

Foucault

Borghes

Golem

Rear Window

Parasites

Hypnosis

Paranoia

Marquis de Sade

Lacan

Duchamp’s Bachelor Machines

Hybridization

Grimm Brothers

Schizophrenia

Heironymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights

Interests & Infl uences on R&Sie’s Projects

R & Sie do not build buildings, but in-stead architectural systems, ones which grow out their geographical, ecologi-cal, cultural context. Their designs are ones that cause people to be more aware of the character of their envi-ronment, the systems at work in them, and the things which might be threat-ening it.

Note: These projects are not attempt-ing to do do away with these “threat-ening” entities, nor with the fear that they induce. Instead, R & Sie want to elucidate,build around, build with, and build into these very things which threaten to destroy our normal con-ception of architecture and progress.

Mosquito Bottleneck

Construction of a private house for an art col-lector in Trinidad.

Scenario: 1) Detection of the mosquito-borne West Nile Fe-ver virus on the island.2) Mixing this objective paranoia with a desire for safety.3) Developing a Klein-bottle twist between the two contradictory data: humans and insects.4) Living and dying of mosquitoes in the house trap. 5) Introducing a fragile structure and materi-als, like fabric netting everywhere, in recogni-tion of the geographic position of this island, naturally protected against hurricanes. 6) Weaving together all the surfaces of the house – fl oor, façade and roof – with plas-tic wire and plastic shrink-wrap.7) Resonance between the buzzing of the mosqui-toes and the vibration of the structure.

Aspiration

Design of the Cultural Center (extension of the School of Architecture), on the docks of Venice, 4100 m2 (auditorium, bookshop, amphitheatres, restaurant, gallery)

Scenario : 1) Destruction of the concrete warehouses (pre-serving a virtual ghost print of the building). 2) Digital water sucking up and wave motion on the programming layers. 3) Cutting of the sucking up according to the print of the pre-existent building. 4) Constitution of an internal and external PVC membrane. 5) Vegetal lagoon growth by capillary sucking up (in double plastic and transparent wall for an “acqua alta” exacerbation)

A Few Examples from R&Sie’s Portfolio:

Dusty Relief/ B_Mu

Design of a Contemporary Art Museum

Scenario :

1) Random relief calculated by particles and pixeli-sation for a pure grey ectoplasm under the lightning grey sky of Bangkok

2) Collecting the dust (particles of carbon monox-ide) of the city (“Breeding the dust” of Duchamp...) by an aluminium envelop and electrostatics system.

3) Exacerbating the skyzo climate between interior (white cube and labyrinth in an Euclidian geometry) and exterior (dust relief on topologic geometry), and using this sun protection monolith interface for in/outdoor exhibition.

“Recognizing the new principles of reality, it is a space of confrontation, ceaselessly investing itself in new procedures for the reprogramming and rescripting of existence, here and now. By necessity, it confronts its emergence, its Gestalt, and can only be negotiated in the visible spectrum. That is its political and operational condition.”

-(Science)Fiction & Mass Culture CrisisFrancois Roche, 2003

“The work calls to play, the play fi ction is drawing the players into itself, absorbing and dissolving their subjectivity. From this dissolution of subjectivity, comes forth the notion of a soluble architecture and emerges the tacit consciousness of al-ready being a player. The architect is but one of the players in this play. The play-fi ction is non-linear, non-predictive and non-purposive. In a way, it recalls the open scenarios of soap operas in which the scenario unfolds with respect to the wishes and reactions of the specatators, evolving in an intedeterminate way that cannot be anticipated by its very authors. The play-fi c-tion produces an interactive design device, an architect-player-citizen interface acting as a mode of operation negotiating with our troubles, fears, fantasies and perversions while revealing and confronting us with this very transaction”

-Delicious Decay by Zeynep Mennan

R & Sie (n)’s latest work introduces comput-er scripting into the design process. In doing so, they are giving up part of the architect’s control over the design, and placing it in the hands of a complex, algo-rithmic computer process.

This a new approach to architectural de-sign...one in which architecture is not an object created by one person, but in which architecture is a process.

These new projecst are generated over time as they responds to their changing surroundings, as they adapt both system-atically and randomly to their contexts.

These are the projects we are interested most interested in.

g p yjectivity. Fromhe notion of aciousness of al-of the players

on-predictive andcenarios of soapct to the wishesn intedeterminate ors. The play-fi c-architect-player-negotiating with

while revealing

Mennan

OLZWEGDesign of a Museum for Experimental Architecture

Scenario :1) The courtyard of Frac is aggregated of glass stick in order to generate a gluing and smearing of the exist-ing building as a potential of a Body Without Organ (a “going to be done” and unachieved process of construction) and inside the thickness of the glass, a labyrinth walk way and accessibilities. A scattering script is written to develop the aggregation.

2) Procedures of constructions and cleanings are assisted by robots (with or without automatism) to introduce randomisation and uncertainty in the fi nal shape and to be able to re-program the labyrinth during the construction itself…

Key Examples of R&Sie(n) Computer Scripting Architectural Projects

3) The elements of glass are from a citizen glass recycling process in order to reduce the raw material costs and involve the inhabitants of the agglomeration in the “work to be done” story.

4) The construction schedule is planned on more than 10 years for the same reason…construc-tion became a factor a desire with a desirable machine (Duchamp)

5) Using individual RIFD-PDA to force each visitor to accept to lose themselves in the glass maze and redefi ne their XYZ positioning accord-ing to the specifi cities of an exhibition (PAD with sound, video and local GPS)

A Wk script for maxR8.x-- Version 1.5-- released --- contact: werwack@yahoo.com/*-- Purpose:---------This script creates a spoke tape in the scene. It gives the spoke value of circles and arcs and is renderable-- Use:----Go to Create->Geometry->Cotations and clic on WkSpoke-- Notes:-------- support atmo-sph for light- undo works-- Known trou-bles----------------- Todo:-------wip attention les groupehead viennent se mettre ds la selection-- wip copy, inst etc distrib ne marchent que sur le 1er obj de la sel-- mettre une progress-bar-- faire une option “link to sup-port”-- ne marche pas avec des grps ou-verts CloneNodes-- teste si un support xref peut etre utilise-- faire une option use selected verts-- faire une option allow grp members-- faire un alignement en fonction des axes, des reperes-- re-leased:--- shapes now supported for sup-port-- Version history------------------ link objects to support faces with attachment controller added-- V1.0: (10/11/05)- basic version*/------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------macroScript WkScatter category:”WerwacK s Tools” tooltip: “WkScatter V 1.5” Icon:#(“WkScatterIcons”,1)--global in the macr:globalWkScatterMainRoll, WkScat-terAdvSettingsRoll, WkScatterWin--local in the macro :local gmSupportObj = unde-fi ned, \gmSysObj = #world, \obj_list_array = #(), \obj_name_array = #(), \atm_light_list_array = #()local lbDisplayDebugMes = truEnableSceneRedraw()try( DestroyDialog WkScatterMainRoll )catch()

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- fi lter for picked objectsfn SupportFilter pckobj =(if( ( superclassof pckobj ) == Geometry-Class \or ( superclassof pckobj ) == Shape )then return trueelse return false)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- get the selected objects and keep it in obj_list_array, keep their name in obj_name_arrayfn fi ll_obj_list_array =

etryClass \or ( superclassof selection[i] ) == helper \or ( superclassof selection[i] ) == light ) \and selection[i] != gmSupportObj \and selection[i] != gmSysObj \) do(-- do we see grouped objects as stand alone objects?if( WkScatterAdvSettingsRoll.IgnoreGpsChkbx.checked ) thenif( not (isgrouphead selection[i]) ) do(obj_list_array[ind] = selection[i]obj_name_array[ind] = selection[i].nameind += 1)else(if( not (isgroupmember selection[i]) or (is-grouphead selection[i]) ) do(obj_list_array[ind] = selection[i]obj_name_array[ind] = selection[i].nameind += 1))))

WkScatterMainRoll.obj_listbx.items = obj_name_array)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- fi lter for prs picked object for coodinate systemfn prs_sys_fi lt pckobj =(if( ( (superclassof pckobj) == geometryclass \or (superclassof pckobj)==helper \or (superclassof pckobj)==camera ) )-- and (pckobj != gmSupportObj) )--wip faire un test pour que piked object n appartienne pas o objets de la listethen return trueelse return false-- fi lls atm_light_list_array with all the atmospherics using rLightfn GetLightAtmospherics rLight =(local lIndGizmolocal lGizmo

atm_light_list_array = #()

for i=1 to numAtmospherics do(

lIndGizmo = 1lbNomoreGizmos = falsewhile( not lbNomoreGizmos ) do(

if( not lbNomoreGizmos ) do(if( lGizmo != undefi end and lGizmo == rLight ) then(append atm_light_list_array lAtmlbNomoreGizmos = trueif( lbDisplayDebugMes ) thenformat( “Debug:GetLightAtmospherics:atm_light_list_array %\n” )atm_light_list_arrayfn AssignAttachmentController rObj rFaceInd =(if rFaceInd < gmSupportObj.mesh.numfaces dolcontro = Attachment()lcontro.node = gmSupportObjrObj.pos.controller = lcontrorObj.pos.controller = lcontroaddNewKey lcontro 0ftheAKey = AttachCtrl.getKey lcontro 1 --get the fi rst keytheAKey.face = rFaceInd--surf.mesh.numfaces - 1theAKey.coord = [1,0]catch()-- rVect is fl oat, point 2 or point3-- rEpsilon (optional) is the precision-- returns true if each vector member is inférior to epsilonfn IsNul rVect rEpsilon: =if unsupplied == rEpsilon do rEpsilon = 1.0e-6if (classof rVect) == fl oat or (classof rVect) == integer doif (abs rVect) < rEpsilon do return trueif (classof rVect) == point2 doif (abs rVect.x) < rEpsilon and (abs rVect.y) < rEp-silon do return trueif (classof rVect) == point3 doif (abs rVect.x) < rEpsilon and (abs rVect.y) < rEp-silon and (abs rVect.z) < rEpsilon do return truereturn false)---------------------------------------------------------------------------------returns oriented angle in degrees between rVectA and rVectB (teta belongs to [-180,180])--returns undefi ned if one of the vectors is nul (or too small) or if 2 vectors are colinear-- note: in general we would like to have angle ac-cording to Z world fi st, we will then use (default):-- refaxisx = point3 1 0 0-- refaxisy = point3 0 1 0-- refaxisz = point3 0 0 1-- GetDirectAngle (p2.pos - p1.pos) (pa.pos - p1.pos) refaxisz refaxisy refaxisx

fn GetDirectAngle rVectA rVectB rRefAxis1: rRefAx-is2: rRefAxis3: =(if unsupplied == rRefAxis1 do rRefAxis1 = point3 0 0 1 -- world z axisif unsupplied == rRefAxis2 do rRefAxis2 = point3 0 1 0 -- world y axisif unsupplied == rRefAxis3 do rRefAxis3 = point3 1 0 0 -- world x axis

local lReturnAngle

Excerpts from the MaxR8 script created by R&Sie(n) to build Olzweg

I’VE HEARD ABOUT:

The urban structure “I’ve heard about” is a habitable organism. It develops by means of adaptive, transi-tory scenarios in which the operational mode is un-certainty. It is written based on growth scripts, open algorithms, that remain permeable not only to human expressions (expressions of individuality, relational, confl ictual and transactional modes, etc.), but also to the most discrete data such as the chemical emissions of those who inhabit it. This biostructure becomes the visible part of human contingencies and their negotia-tion in real time. Due to its modes of emergence, its fabrication cannot be delegated to a political power that would deny its exchange procedures and design its contours in advance, either through mnemonics or coercion. -Francois Roche (http://b.durandin.free.fr/iveheardabout/iha.htm)

To see the script being written and explainedhttp://b.durandin.free.fr/iveheardabout/ConstructionTree.htm

This is the fabrication machine constructed by R&Sie(n). It reads the computer algorythms and con-structs, over time, the inhabitable city structure.

HYPNOSIS ROOM

Experiment of hypnosis individual cession in the research and exhibition “I’ve heard about”.

Scenario: 1) Enter in a “heterotopian” cognitive room.2) Let you dive secondly in a “wake up dream”, fi lled by vocal information on “I’ve heard about” urbanism.3) Feel yourself as a nerve termination inside the organic and self-determination growing structure.4) Keep the speculation and experiment alive as a possibility of transformation of your own biotope.

We have taken these concepts developed by R&Sie(n) and developped our own proj-ect, one which responds to a problematic urban context with which we native Louisi-anans are both familiar :

A New Infrastructure for New Orleans, LA

HIT ME BABY, ONE MORE TIME

Scenario:

1. New Orleans is at risk of becoming an Atlantis. This once-bustling metropo-lis could be transformed into an under-water relic.

2. In the event of a fl ood, the survival technique is to fi nd higher ground.

3. This script identifi es real and fi ctional higher grounds (in the form of buildings and infrastrucutre) and draws a new network of paths between them.

4. Allow those paths to ______ to create a new la

Existing 21st Century Site

including proposed Roots of Music Interventions

Roots of Music Intervention 1 & A

Site 1:

Water Infrastructure: The Second LineLocated along the Flailing Ephemeral zombie (I-10 Corridor).

Site A:

Higher Ground/Liminal SpacesGrowing out of the vestigial spaceship, relic of the Cold War Era, (situated in the heart of the Treme.)

Incorporating Sites 1 & A within the future-mesh-displaced-ground-plane

Extended nomadic mesh across the Treme

Dots (green spots within the red lines) identify the high points of the existing urban fabric.

Lines (green vectors) bridge new connections between high points, creating the future ground/urban grain.

Potential Growth Patterns based on the eleva-tion of urban topographies

Grasshopper Script for Extended Nomadic Mesh in Treme.

The massive data structure tree:

a second representation o